time storm n.

a disturbance in time that can bring people and things from different times into the same timeline; cf. timequake n., time-slip n.

Chiefly popularized by Gordon Dickson’s 1977 novel Time Storm.

Time Travel

  • 1942 A. E. van Vogt Recruiting Station in Astounding Science-Fiction Mar. 38/1 page image A. E. van Vogt bibliography

    Your spaceship either by accident or design caught in the eddying current in the resulting time storm.

  • 1959 R. F. Young Passage to Gomorrah in Fantastic Jan. 93/1 page image Robert F. Young bibliography

    Suddenly he remembered his passenger, remembered her apprehension about time storms.

  • 1977 G. R. Dickson Time Storm 11 Gordon R. Dickson bibliography

    He gave us the closest thing to a normal meal that I’d eaten…since the time storm first hit Earth.

  • 1994 A. McCaffrey Girl Who Heard Dragons (1995) 167 Anne McCaffrey bibliography

    The time storm shifted and that resettlement was enough to rouse Chloe, attuned as she was to the distortion phenomenon.

  • 1995 M. Feder On Books in Asimov’s Science Fiction Dec. 167/2 page image Moshe Feder bibliography

    We share Toby’s adventure as assistant to an exalted river pilot on a craft that simultaneously sails through time and up a river…. The worst danger of all is the possibility of a time storm.

  • 2015 Starburst Magazine (#410) Mar. 77/1 page image

    When ultimately they decide to become involved, the time storm that conveyed them back into history reappears and prevents the timelines from becoming corrupted.

Research requirements

antedating 1942
Earliest cite

A.E. van Vogt, 'Recruiting Station'
Research History
Mike Christie submitted a 1942 cite from A.E. van Vogt's "Recruiting Station".

We would like cites of any date from other sources.

Last modified 2024-08-09 14:20:26
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.